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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27206413">Pulse</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkNymfa/pseuds/DarkNymfa'>DarkNymfa</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ectoberweek 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Danny Phantom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Friendship, Gen, Ghosts, ectoberweek2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:21:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,395</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27206413</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkNymfa/pseuds/DarkNymfa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Tucker attempt to deal the change of their best friend after his accident in the lab.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Danny Fenton &amp; Tucker Foley &amp; Sam Manson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ectoberweek 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984810</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>119</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Pulse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I asked my Tumblr followers on whether to do Tucker POV or Sam POV for this fic, and they voted Tucker POV, so here we are! He's always so much fun to write.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So,” Tucker said, before falling silent. Hoped to prompt one of the others into speaking up instead.</p>
<p>“So,” Danny echoed. “What happened?”</p>
<p>“Why are you asking us?” Tucker flailed upright so he could look at Danny. “You’re the one who went into the Portal!”</p>
<p>“Well, yeah, but—” He gestured vaguely. “You two are acting weird. What happened after the Portal turned on?”</p>
<p>“What, you don’t remember?” Sam leaned forward, frowning at Danny.</p>
<p>Danny scoffed. “Obviously not.”</p>
<p>How could he <em>not</em> remember? That he’d come out of the Portal looking like he’d died, like the perfect image of a ghost? “Dude, you’re joking, right? How could you not have noticed?”</p>
<p>“Noticed <em>what</em>? Come on, just tell me!”</p>
<p>“He really doesn’t remember.” Sam reached over to tug on Tucker’s leg. “Tuck, what if it’s like a possession thing?”</p>
<p>“It’s not a possession thing,” Tucker dismissed immediately. “What kinda possession would change the host into a ghost as well. It’s just…” He trailed off.</p>
<p>Danny made a face. “I don’t think I like where this is heading. What do you guys mean, a <em>possession</em> thing? What happened, seriously?”</p>
<p>Honestly, Tucker didn’t think he <em>could</em> explain. And based on the look Sam was throwing him, neither could she. Still, he cleared his throat and tried. “Well, it was just… weird, y’know? When you came out of the Portal. You weren’t really yourself.”</p>
<p>“Your colors were all weird,” Sam continued at Danny’s quirked eyebrow. “Your suit had gone black with white gloves, your hair was crazy pale, and your eyes had gone green. And,” she flapped her hand, “there was also the fact that you glowed.”</p>
<p>“I… glowed?” Danny repeated, slowly and questioningly. “What, like a ghost?”</p>
<p>“<em>Exactly</em> like a ghost,” Tucker confirmed, crossing his arms and staring at Danny. He looked just like he always did. Warm and fleshy and not at all like what they’d seen just before. “And the way you were looking at us, you’d think that you didn’t recognize us. Either of us.”</p>
<p>“Weird.” Danny frowned, one hand closing around the wrist of the other. Almost like a nervous gesture, except one that Danny had never shown before. “I don’t… remember any of that. But clearly it went away. Right?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, no, exactly.” Tucker nodded quickly, uncrossing his arms so he could mimic an explosion. “There was a flash of light and then suddenly, there you were again. Back to normal.”</p>
<p>Danny hummed. “I… think I remember the flash of light? Maybe. But I thought it was the after-effects of the Portal.”</p>
<p>“Who knows, maybe it was.” Tucker shrugged, mentally crossing his fingers and hoping to god it <em>was</em>. “A one-off caused by the ectoplasmic exposure, or whatever.”</p>
<p>“We’ll need to keep an eye on it anyway,” Sam pointed out, shifting her eyes from Tucker back to Danny. “It might not happen again, but we don’t know what that was, let alone what kind of effects it might’ve had.”</p>
<p>“Right.” Danny nodded, once, strongly. “You two are here for the rest of the weekend anyway. We’ll see after that.”</p>
<hr/>
<p>The rest of the day passed by normally, and briefly, Tucker entertained the hope that it really <em>had</em> been a one-off. But during the night he woke to a bright flash of light, and lo and behold, there was the ghostly version of Danny again.</p>
<p>“Man, really,” he grumbled, rubbing the heel of his hand over his eyes to try and get the grit out. “You’re bright as hell, dude, couldn’t you have done this during the day?”</p>
<p>Danny’s glow brightened in response, his vivid green eyes narrowing in a frown. “I’m sorry?”</p>
<p>“Sure don’t sound very sorry.” And he didn’t. Mostly, he just sounded very confused. “Go wake up Sam, will you? If I’m suffering we all are.”</p>
<p>A slow, almost deliberate blink was his response, before Danny turned away to look at Sam. He shifted closer, his gaze wandering back to Tucker. Then, still watching Tucker, Danny stretched out his leg and kicked Sam in the shoulder.</p>
<p>Sam grunted, hand swatting at Danny’s leg. “I will kill you.”</p>
<p>“Um,” Danny said, pulling his leg back towards himself. And then continued pulling himself away from Sam, actually lifting off of his bed entirely, until he floated a foot or so above it.</p>
<p>“If you fall I’m not gonna catch you, dude,” Tucker told him, even though he probably <em>would</em> try to catch him, if Danny had gone high enough that he might hurt himself. Still, he didn’t need to know that. “Do you even know what you’re doing?”</p>
<p>“Yeah?” Danny turned to frown at him again. “Yeah, definitely.” He sounded plenty convinced, too.</p>
<p>Didn’t sound nearly as confident when Sam grabbed his arm suddenly, lunging up from the floor where she had been lying. Danny yelped, tugging himself free with a bout of something which Tucker was sure was ghostly intangibility.</p>
<p>“Alright, that’s cheating,” Sam claimed, opening her hand, still holding it out in Danny’s direction. “Give me your hand.”</p>
<p>“Why?” he asked her, slowly moving the hand back in her direction, eyes narrowed. They glowed brightly in the dark of the room. “What’re you gonna do?”</p>
<p>She snatched his hand up, fingers burrowing past the hem of his white glove. “Checking something.”</p>
<p>Oh. She was… <em>oh</em>.</p>
<p>“No pulse,” she reported, before moving her fingers to tug on the edge of Danny’s glove. “And this seems to be part of his body.”</p>
<p>“Well,” Tucker said, before pausing to swallow past the block in his throat. “I guess his pulse will come back when he goes back to normal? He seems pretty ghostly right now.”</p>
<p>Sam hummed, pinching the sleeve of Danny’s jumpsuit, ignoring the look Danny was throwing her way. “The clothes is a ghost thing too, I think. The Fentons always claimed that their shapes were simple and only had one layer, or something like that.”</p>
<p>“Right, yeah, I remember that.” Maybe they should’ve looked into the whole ghost thing a little more. Danny <em>was</em> looking very much like a ghost right now, and Tucker kinda wished he knew more.</p>
<p>Like if his friend was gonna be okay.</p>
<p>“I don’t understand what’s happening,” Danny said, flat and a little hopelessly. He jangled the arm Sam was holding, but didn’t seem very intent on throwing her off.</p>
<p>“Welcome to the club,” she said with a snort, pinching him again. “You don’t feel this?”</p>
<p>“No?” Danny frowned at her, utter confusion clear on his face. “Am I supposed to?”</p>
<p>“Something here seems weird,” Tucker commented. He paused. “Weirder than it already was. Danny, man, what is up with you?”</p>
<p>“Who, me?” Danny asked, twisting around to look at Tucker again. “I really don’t know what’s happening.”</p>
<p>Sam paused, releasing her pinching grip but still holding on to Danny’s arm. “Danny, what are you saying?”</p>
<p>“Danny?” he repeated, tone questioning. “Why are you calling me that?”</p>
<p>Tucker felt his heart stop. He stared at Danny, incredulously, but there wasn’t even the slightest hint of joking.</p>
<p>“Because… it’s your name?” he managed, feebly, not looking away from Danny. “You’re our best friend, Danny Fenton. Don’t you remember?”</p>
<p>The ghost of his best friend blinked at him, then at Sam. “I… no? I don’t remember anything.”</p>
<p>“Sooo… About the Fenton’s theory that ghosts don’t remember anything,” Sam said, voice quiet. Uncharacteristically shaken. “I mean… Before, Danny didn’t remember this either. It’s like… two separate states?”</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah, I remember now!” Danny exclaimed, still looking at Sam. “I saw you two earlier, briefly! But then light flashed, and now I’m here.” He looked around, curiously. “Where <em>is</em> here?”</p>
<p>Well, way to drive the point home, buddy. “Okay, so. The accident made it so that he’s, what, both human and ghost, and the two states just kind of switch around? Fuck, Sam.”</p>
<p>“I <em>know</em>,” she hissed back, cautiously releasing Danny’s arm. “Stay in your room, okay Danny?” Seeing him frown, she added, “That’s <em>this </em>room. Stay in <em>this</em> room, okay?”</p>
<p>“Sure,” he agreed easily, floating off to peer at some of the decorations Danny had in his room.</p>
<p>“Do you think we should tell his parents?” Tucker asked, scooting closer to Sam, keeping an eye on Danny. Or, Danny’s ghost, he supposed, since they apparently weren’t the same person. “I mean, if this starts happening more… He won’t be able to recognize them, or convince them of being Danny.”</p>
<p>Sam made a face. “Yeah, but… I dunno, Tuck, what if they try to hurt him? Experiment on him?”</p>
<p>They watched Danny poke around in his own room for a moment. Quietly, Sam continued, “Maybe he can hold it off. He didn’t shift until now, right? Maybe Danny’s control slipped while he was asleep. If we tell him to be careful he’ll stay out of trouble, right?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know, Sam.” Tucker sighed, deeply and wearily. “I really don’t know. Man, we’re just fourteen. Why are we dealing with this kinda stuff?” He looked over at Sam’s stricken face. “I mean— It’s not our fault. It’s not anyone’s fault, okay? Don’t blame yourself. We couldn’t have known.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, but—”</p>
<p>“No, Sam. Either everyone’s to blame for this, or no one is.” He pointed at Danny’s ghost, who was now trying to peel off one of the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. “<em>He</em> could’ve refused to go in. <em>I</em> could’ve stopped him. His parents could’ve done a better job of locking up the lab, or the Portal, or <em>anything</em>. This isn’t just <em>your</em> fault, okay? Stop blaming yourself.”</p>
<p>Sam hummed, a disbelieving sound, but she didn’t protest, so Tucker would consider it a win.</p>
<p>Silence fell again as they watched the ghost frown at the sticky star on his hand. Then, almost hesitantly, he stuck the star to his chest.</p>
<p>“Man,” Tucker said, then paused when he realized he didn’t know where he’d been going with that sentence.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Sam agreed quietly. Then, raising her voice some, she called over to Danny. “Hey, aren’t you tired or something? Let’s go to sleep, Danny.”</p>
<p>Again, bright green eyes turned to them. “I’m not tired,” he said simply. “Ghosts don’t sleep.” Then he frowned, and added, “I thought I wasn’t Danny? Not really?”</p>
<p>“Sorta kinda.” Tucker shrugged. “You’re like, his ghost, I guess? You don’t want to be Danny?”</p>
<p>“Seems confusing,” the ghost admitted, lowering himself until he floated at eye level to them. “He was Danny first, right? And I’m just his ghost. So I could be like… Phantom, or something.”</p>
<p>“Phantom,” Tucker echoed, dryly. “You really want to go by a synonym of <em>ghost</em>?”</p>
<p>The ghost in question shrugged. “Why not? And you said my—his—last name was Fenton, yeah? So it’s kind of a pun.”</p>
<p>Tucker groaned, even as Sam laughed, softly. “I should’ve figured, man. Your love for puns is immortal and undying.”</p>
<p>Phantom grinned at him, revealing green gums and pointed fangs, which Tucker somehow hadn’t noticed before. “Well, <em>something</em> had to carry over, yeah?”</p>
<p>“I <em>guess</em>,” Tucker agreed, sounding much more disgruntled than he felt. It was weird, yes, but it was also kinda nice, to see a little more Danny in Phantom. “Look, <em>you</em> might not need sleep because you’re a ghost, but Sam and I do. Can we trust you to stay in this room and out of trouble?”</p>
<p>“Of course,” Phantom immediately assured him, before pausing. “Um. What constitutes as trouble, exactly?”</p>
<p>“Staying in this room should be good enough for now,” Sam said, gesturing around them. “But if anyone who isn’t us comes in, or knocks… I dunno, hide? Go invisible, maybe, if you can maintain it for long enough.”</p>
<p>“Your parents are ghost hunters. If they see you, they’ll probably try to hurt you,” Tucker tagged on. “You look just like Danny, but they’re not gonna stop and consider that, especially if you won’t have his memories to convince them.”</p>
<p>Phantom’s expression grew serious, and he nodded. “Got it. Stay here, stay out of sight.”</p>
<p>“Try not to be too loud, as well. Making a lot of noise will probably lead to them coming here to make sure we’re doing alright.” Sam narrowed her eyes. “And we’ll be trying to sleep, and loud noises don’t help with that.”</p>
<p>He nodded again. “Stay here, stay out of sight, don’t be loud. Anything else?”</p>
<p>“If you think you’re gonna switch back to Danny, maybe try to get yourself back to the bed? But other than that, no, I guess that that’s it.” Tucker sighed, sitting down on his pile of blankets. “Good night, Phantom.”</p>
<p>“Good night, Tucker, Sam,” he replied, floating away a little but not taking his eyes off of them. Apparently he was curious to see what <em>sleep</em> meant. Great. Brilliant.</p>
<p>Tucker shook his head, tucking himself back into his nest of blankets. From where he laid, he could see Sam do the same.</p>
<p>When they both remained still for a while, Phantom lost interest, going back to checking out the room. <em>His</em> room.</p>
<p>Through squinted eyes, Tucker watched him. Phantom hadn’t even noticed that he hadn’t taken off his glasses. Didn’t know the importance of it, probably.</p>
<p>On the other side of the room, Tucker could see Sam watching as well. They both knew damn well that they wouldn’t get a minute of sleep, not while Danny was… not Danny. While Phantom was around.</p>
<p>Tucker wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting from Phantom. He seemed to follow the Fentons’ ghost rules pretty closely, except he didn’t appear malevolent in the least. Even while he thought that no one was watching him, he did as had been asked: remained in the room, remained quiet.</p>
<p>Admittedly he didn’t do a great job of getting himself back to the bed when he shifted back, because light flashed and Danny Fenton collapsed onto the floor with an uncomfortably loud thud, but, well. He might not have noticed it was coming.</p>
<p>Tucker exchanged a grimace with Sam, then both of them got up to check over their best friend. Danny was fast asleep, grumbling under his breath when they nudged him. He would probably have a bruise from the landing, but hey. Could’ve been worse.</p>
<p>Wrapping his fingers around Danny’s ankles, Tucker watched Sam grab Danny’s wrists, and they lifted him back to the bed. And when they stepped away, Sam nodded at him, and said, quietly, “He’s got a pulse.”</p>
<p>Well. Tucker certainly slept better afterwards.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For day 2, Pulse, I used this idea from my fic file:<br/>AU where Danny follows all 'typical' ghost rules when he's Phantom. Can't feel pain, doesn't need to eat or breathe or sleep, no heartbeat, etc. For extra angst, he can't remember anything from before his 'death'.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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